Privacy policy
Your data, explained plainly.
Effective September 16, 2026. This policy explains how Stave handles information when you use our app and this website.
Information we collect
- Account information: your email address, account identifier, and sign-in information needed to provide your account.
- Cellar and app content: bottles, quantities, purchase details, notes, rankings, watchlists, preferences, feedback, sightings, store scores, comments, and submissions you choose to create.
- Community information: the display name, bio, profile photo, follow and block choices, group memberships, posts, comments, reactions, bottle ratings, reports, and related Activity/read-state information you choose to create or manage.
- Photos and camera data: photos you choose to capture or select for bottle identification, submissions, or your profile. We use them only for the feature you initiate.
- Location: precise location only when you allow it for nearby store discovery and location-based alerts. Nearby Sighting Alerts require a separate in-app opt-in. For that feature, Stave stores only an approximate location and timestamp, clears it when you turn the feature off, and removes stale location data after 14 days.
- Notifications and watches: a device notification token, device/app information needed to deliver alerts, your alert and lock-screen-detail preferences, and the distillery approval watches or store/community alerts you choose to enable. Stale device tokens are removed after a limited inactivity period.
- Optional purchase details: purchase price and related collection information that you enter.
- Product interaction and diagnostic information: account-linked, high-level feature events (for example, that a user opened Price Check or completed setup), limited flow context, and app version. We use this to understand and improve Stave. These events never include search text, bottle names, barcodes, addresses, notes, photos, or precise location. We do not collect payment-card or bank-account information.
How we use information
We use information to operate Stave: provide your account, sync your cellar across your devices, identify bottles, show store and release features, deliver reminders and alerts you choose, review community submissions, respond to support requests, protect the app from misuse, and understand which high-level app flows need improvement.
We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and Stave does not include advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, or cross-app or cross-site advertising tracking.
When information is shared
We use service providers that help us run authentication, database and storage, notifications, location search, and user-requested bottle-photo analysis. If camera-assisted bottle entry is available and you choose to use it, the label photos you selected and the bottle text or barcode you provided may be sent to Google’s Gemini service to extract bottle details. The app asks for permission immediately before that happens. Do not include people, faces, account information, or other personal information in those photos.
We also use mapping and place-search providers to return stores and route information you request. Providers process information only as needed to provide their services. We may disclose information when required to comply with law, protect users, or enforce our rights.
Community content
Community content can include store scores and comments, bottle sightings, lottery suggestions, collector profiles, Feed and group posts/comments, reactions, and bottle ratings. Some submissions are held for review before publication; public content can also be reported, moderated, removed, or restricted under our rules. Bottle sightings require a supporting photo; if approved, that photo is displayed with the sighting. Do not include people, faces, account information, or personal, sensitive, unlawful, threatening, or infringing content. We use your account identifier to operate and protect these features, but Stave does not display your email address with public community content.
Your choices and controls
You can control camera, photo-library, location, calendar, and notification access in your device settings. In Stave Settings, you can separately control alert categories, approval watches, Nearby Sighting Alerts, and lock-screen notification details. You can update much of your account content in the app. To delete your account, use Settings → Danger Zone → Delete Account and confirm the request. Deletion removes your profile, cellar, bottle notes and rankings, watchlist, personal store state, sightings, personal drop state, notification tokens, feedback, pending submissions, and account-submitted photos. Approved shared catalog contributions may remain without an account association, and public drop records may remain without an account association so other collectors’ reminders are not disrupted. We retain de-identified deletion-audit records to prevent a deleted session from restoring data and to verify completion. See Privacy Choices for practical steps and help with access, correction, or deletion requests.
Data security and retention
We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect the information we handle. No system is completely secure, so please keep your sign-in credentials private. We retain account and feature data while your account is active, then delete or de-identify it through our account-deletion process unless limited retention is necessary for security, fraud prevention, legal obligations, or dispute resolution. Device notification tokens are removed after 90 days without device activity, or 14 days after a disabled token is left unused. De-identified deletion-audit records currently do not have a fixed automated expiration; we retain them only for security and completion-verification purposes while a retention schedule is finalized.
Children
Stave is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
California and other privacy requests
Regardless of where you live, you can ask us about the personal information associated with your account, request correction or deletion help, or ask questions about our privacy practices. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Send requests from the email address on your Stave account to support@stavebourbon.com. We may need to verify your request before acting on it.
Changes and contact
We may update this policy as Stave changes. We will post the updated version here and revise the effective date. Questions about privacy or your data can be sent to support@stavebourbon.com. For copyright concerns about user-submitted content, see Copyright concerns. See the Terms of Use and Community Guidelines for service and contribution rules.